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Last updated: 2019-12-08.

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Adam D. Smith

As a Quantitative Ecologist with the United States Fish & Wildlife Service Inventory and Monitoring Program, I provide ecological inventory and monitoring design and analytical assistance to the roughly 130 National Wildlife Refuges. In addition, I engage in diverse partnerships with conservation and resource management agencies and organizations to support a research program built around modern quantitative tools and approaches to understand the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Most of my active projects are collaborative and integrate digitally-coded telemetry or GPS logging technology to answer landscape and local scale questions relevant to conservation and management. I am an open science advocate.

Education

Ph.D., Environmental Science (avian ecology focus)

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2013

  • Thesis: Migration and stopover ecology of songbirds and bats along a major ecological barrier

M.S., Raptor Biology

Boise State University

Boise, ID

2006

  • Thesis: Exploring raptor migration using stable isotope analysis: the Northern Goshawk in western North America

B.S., Wildlife Biology

Murray State University

Murray, KY

2000

Professional Experience

Quantitative Ecologist

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

Athens, GA

2019 - 2015

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2015 - 2013

  • Described spatiotemporal variation in the behavior and abundance of sea ducks in southern New England and developed novel statistical methodologies to predict animal distribution and abundance relative to environmental covariates
  • Studied post-breeding and migratory movement ecology of migratory birds using automated telemetry

Research Associate

University of Florida

N/A

2008

  • Generated probabilistic (Bayesian) models of songbird resource use based on the isotopic composition of avian tissues and potential food resources to document the extent of community-level diet shifts and the seasonal importance of different food resources to migratory songbirds

Avian Research Technician II/III

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

Frankfort, KY

2007 - 2005

  • Coordinated and implemented statewide Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon monitoring, two Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) banding stations, migratory songbird banding, winter raptor surveys, and songbird banding training for staff and cooperators

Publications

(under review) Linking monitoring and data analysis to predictions and decisions for the range-wide eastern Black Rail status assessment. Endangered Species Research.

N/A

N/A

2019

(under review) Actionable long-term monitoring for southeastern U.S. bat populations following White-nose Syndrome’s western spread. Biological Conservation

N/A

N/A

2019

(in revision) Florida’s strategic position for collaborative automated-telemetry tracking of avian movements across the Americas. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

N/A

N/A

2019

Grants

Asterisks (*) indicate I was integral to project development, design, and implementation, but not an official PI due to institutional policies.

Local and post-breeding movements of Painted Buntings associated with molt

Carolina Bird Club

N/A

2019

  • co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
  • $3,500

*Evaluating the use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) to survey Black Rails

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2018

  • PI Susan McRae (East Carolina University)
  • $19,715

*Inventory and assessment of secretive marshbirds: using eDNA to determine occupancy with a focus on Eastern Black Rail and King Rail

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2017

  • PI Susan McRae (East Carolina University)
  • $27,352

*Black Rail ecology to inform effective survey design and support population modelling

U.S. Geological Survey

N/A

2016

  • PI Clint Moore (U.S. Geological Survey)
  • $172,907

Secretive marsh bird surveys on southeastern National Wildlife Refuges

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2016

  • co-PI with Whitney Biessler (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
  • $92,700

Seasonal connectivity of MacGillivray’s Seaside Sparrow

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2016

  • co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
  • $11,750

*Seasonal connectivity of MacGillivray’s Seaside Sparrrow

Carolina Bird Club

N/A

2016

  • co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
  • $4,800

*Automated telemetry monitoring of migratory birds

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2014

  • PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
  • $7,426

*Acoustic monitoring of migrating bats and birds of Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuges

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2010

  • PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
  • $33,038

*Rapid assessment of fruits available to songbirds during fall migration

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services

N/A

2008

  • PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
  • $9,276

*Migratory connectivity: linking raptors to their breeding areas

Idaho Department of Fish & Game

N/A

2002

  • PI Al Dufty (Boise State University)
  • $17,900

Frank M. Chapman Memorial Research Grant

American Museum of Natural History

N/A

2002

E. Alexander Bergstrom Memorial Research Award

Association of Field Ornithologists

N/A

2002

Invited Talks

Southbound Merlin migration in southern New England and the mid-Atlantic (Automated telemetry symposium)

North American Ornithological Conference

Washington, DC

2016

  • co-authored by S.R. McWilliams, R. Gray, and C. DeSorbo

Songbird migration and stopover dynamics along an ecological barrier

Connecticut College

New London, CT

2014

Contributed Talks

What is good quality habitat for migrating songbirds? A nutritional and physiological perspective

North American Ornithological Conference

Washington, DC

2016

  • co-author with S.R. McWilliams, S.R., S. Smith-Pagano, L. Langlois, M. Skrip, and B. Pierce

Boosted zero-inflated negative binomial models for spatiotemporal abundance of sea birds

International Workshop on Statistical Modelling

Linz, Austria

2015

  • co-author with B. Hofner

Spectating is stressful: witnessing two seconds of a predator attack increases levels of circulating glucocorticoids

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

West Palm Beach, FL

2015

  • co-author with B.C. Jones, S.E. Bebus, and S.J. Shoech

Keeping fruit biochemistry in context: neighborhood influences on patterns of fruit consumption

Wilson Ornithological Society

Newport, RI

2014

  • co-authored by S.R. McWilliams

Acoustic monitoring of migrating songbirds and bats in coastal Rhode Island

Northeast Regional Migration Monitoring Network

Winter Harbor, ME

2014

Coastal bat migration and weather: like the birds or for the birds

Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island

N/A

2013

What you don’t know can’t help you: linear mixed models in the environmental sciences

Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island

N/A

2012

Body condition influences the stopover decisions of a migratory songbird

Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island

N/A

2010

Inferring diets of migrating birds: are stable isotopes the answer?

Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island

N/A

2009

Teaching Experience

(Workshop) Motus wildlife tracking

ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve

Charleston, SC

2018

  • presented with N. Wallover and F. Sanders

(Workshop) Using the Motus wildlife tracking network to study avian migration pathways through the southeastern United States

Association of Southeastern Biologists

Myrtle Beach, SC

2018

  • presented with K. Lefevre and S. Mackenzie

Raster Processing in R

USFWS Geospatial Training Workshop

Shepherdstown, WV

2016

Scientific Computing and Programming for Coastal Resource Management: Fundamental Concepts and Open Access Tools

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2014

  • co-instructor with J. Hollister and P. August

Teaching Assistant, Wildlife Management Techniques

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2012

  • Wildlife Management Techniques

Head Teaching Assistant, Human Anatomy and Physiology

Boise State University

Boise, ID

2004

Teaching Assistant, Human Anatomy and Physiology

Boise State University

Boise, ID

2003 - 2001

Advising

David Tilson, M.S. candidate committee member

University of Georgia

Athens, GA

2020

Sarah Donlan, Senior Honors Project

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2011

Undergraduate Natural Resources Science Research Apprenticeships (x2)

University of Rhode Island

Kingston, RI

2011